Page 8 of Roping Her In

He’d had Hailey out to his dog academy several times since she’d started her veterinary technician program, and sometimes she went just to spend time with the canines.

Though they didn’t need anything from her, she needed them, and Mitch had never once questioned her on it. He and his wife, Lacy, simply invited her to stay for dinner and always acted enormously glad when she accepted.

Hailey drew in a breath, trying to find her bearings. She’d never been an overly emotional person, at least until she’d been accused of theft and been fired from her job. After she’d been arrested and had been held in jail overnight, she’d realized how unjust and unfair some things could be. That seemed to have broken something inside her that allowed her emotions to flow to the surface more freely.

“Elaine and Lila Mae are coming,” she managed to say, her voice only a tiny bit tight. “They’re bringing lunch.”

Momma heard it, of course, because once again, she was well-versed with people of all ages and had the most nurturing heart in a person that Hailey had ever met. She still ran school programs at the ranch as part of their outreach program, and she’d started training Nellie to do the same when school had started in the fall.

Hailey moved into the kitchen instead of meeting her mother’s eyes. “They’ll get me through the next two days, and I’ll go grocery shopping after my internship on Monday.”

She’d already completed one short internship provided through the school, where she’d earned credits for the ten-hour-a-week, semester-long program. But this final internship required 280 hours in the next sixteen weeks, and that put her roughly at fifteen hours each week at Three Rivers Ranch.

She hoped to get a schedule that would line up with her job at Feline Friends, though Lila Mae said she could make anything work. She still had nine credits of coursework to do in the vet tech program, and with the internship being a full nine credits as well, Hailey had an eighteen-credit course load and a part-time job to fit in around her work at the ranch.

If she’d been able to meet with Jake Ahlstrom, she may have had her schedule worked out and approved already. But she hadn’t dared contact him or make any further demands. Not that requesting her schedule would have been out of the ordinary.

Knocking sounded on her front door, and then it opened to reveal Elaine Walker peering in. “Knock, knock,” she said. “Lila Mae and I are here with lunch.”

“That’s our cue to leave,” Daddy said. He walked into the kitchen and gave Hailey one last hug before he and Momma left.

“I want a full report on Monday night,” Momma called over her shoulder.

“You’ll get it,” Hailey said.

Her parents left the condo just as Lila Mae and Elaine entered it. Elaine looked around, her sharp eyes missing nothing. Hailey wanted to sag into her and simply let Elaine handle everything.

After all, she did everything brilliantly, never missed details, and had helped Hailey get the internship at Three Rivers Ranch, as well as find and secure this apartment. She served the women in Three Rivers through her Walker Center for Women, and though Hailey wasn’t exactly underprivileged, and she knew how to find apartments and jobs, she’d become close friends with Elaine since her arrest. She had needed help then, and her love and appreciation for her friend doubled as Elaine put a huge pot of stew on the kitchen counter and then turned to survey the rest of the condo.

“This place is great, Hailey,” she said. “Tons of light, just like I said.”

She beamed out that light because she had every reason to do so. She and Colt Franklin had been engaged for a month or two and would be getting married at the beginning of May.

Lila Mae was married to one of Elaine’s cousins, Trap, who owned and operated a construction and design firm here in town. She lifted a brown grocery bag that Hailey didn’t believe would have anything from the grocery store in it. Sure enough, Lila pulled out a round of sourdough and said, “Trap’s Aunt Whitney made this, and it is so good.”

Elaine nodded, her eyes getting wider. “It really is,” she said. “Aunt Whitney makes an amazing sourdough.”

“There’s nothing better than crusty bread and butter.” Hailey peered into the soup pot, which had a clear glass lid. “Unless it’s your chicken and dumpling soup.”

Elaine grinned and giggled. “Well, it’s not mine. My momma made it, and the recipe came from my grandmother Penny. She was the real cook in the family.”

“You can cook too,” Lila Mae said.

“Some things,” Elaine conceded. She moved into the kitchen where Wilder and Gun had put the boxes containing Hailey’s dishes, silverware, cups, and bowls.

“I haven’t had time to unpack,” she said.

“We’ll get to it,” Elaine said cheerfully. “But I had a busy morning out in the orchards, and I’m starving, so I want to eat first.” She started lifting flaps until she found bowls, and Hailey produced the silverware.

“What were you doing at the orchards this morning?” Lila Mae asked.

Elaine’s face turned a ruddy shade of red, and she seemed to look everywhere but at either Hailey or Lila Mae. “Fine. I slept out there, because Colt has some flooding going on, and he needed help with Jonas.”

Hailey came to a standstill. “You slept at Colt’s?”

“He wasn’t even there,” Elaine said. “And yes, I slept in the third bedroom to make sure if Jonas woke up, he could have help.” She pinned her dark eyes first on Lila Mae and then Hailey. “Nothing happened. Colt left around midnight, and I was already in bed.”

Lila Mae blinked rapidly a few times, and Hailey understood the feeling of trying to catch up to a situation, figure it out, and judge it all at the same time. Then she realized this wasn’t her situation to judge.